"Be nice to people even if your own heart is breaking, because there's no need to break theirs too."

~ TheLadyInBlack // @twitter

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Alice's P.O.V

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    "What do you mean, "he's gone?""  Jerome stops in his tracks when he sees the jacket in Andrew's hands. "Where'd you get that?"
   He snatches it from Andrew. "It's my brother's jacket."
   "Jerome-"
   The blonde boy ignores me, clenching his fists as he lifts his head up to look at Andrew. "What did you do?"

    His next words are a deadly whisper. "Did you kill my brother?"
   Ray places his hand on Jerome's shoulder in an attempt to calm him down. "We don't know that. He could still be alive. Maybe-"
   "Get off me, runt," Jerome hisses, shoving Ray's hand off his shoulder. He takes another step forward. "Did you kill my brother, Andrew?"

    "ANSWER ME!"
   Andrew shakes, but his next words don't answer Jerome's question. "I'm sorry."
   That's the final straw for Jerome and he lunges for the taller boy. He wraps his hands around Andrew's neck and chokes him, his knuckles slowly turning white. "WHAT DID YOU DO?!"
   Cassie screams in fear.
   "Jerome stop!"

    Ray tries to pry Jerome off Andrew but he refuses to let go and it takes a Ray, Lewis and Will to successfully pull Jerome off Andrew. Andrew gasps for air, his body going into spasms as he starts coughing violently. Jerome struggles in the boys' hold as they drag him away from the coughing boy. Andrew slowly sits up on the tiled floor, his eyes red and his face pale.

    "I'm sorry," he repeats once he's stopped coughing, his voice no louder than a whisper. "I'm sorry."
    "Jerome, please, you're not thinking straight," I say, hoping that he'd come to his senses.
    Jerome shrugs the boys off himself, his hands clenching into fists. He looks like he wants to lunge for Andrew again but falters when Cassie grabs his hand.

    "Romie, please," Cassie begs, his lower lip quivering.
    Jerome sighs, nodding slowly. "Fine."
    "Come on, Jerome. Let's go outside," I say in an attempt to get him to stop glaring at Andrew, who looks like he's about to collapse again.
    But his eyes don't leave Andrew's.
    "Jerome, please, you need to leave the diner, you aren't thinking straight."

    Jerome raises his hand and points at Andrew. "If my brother isn't here, and it's because of you, I swear to God, I'll kill you."
    Jerome shoots Andrew one last piercing glare before allowing me to lead him out of the diner.

Camelot, Granny's Diner.
Six weeks ago...

    "Come on, Cas."
    "I don't wanna go, mama," Cassie whimpers, shying away from the men in armour.
    I kneel down, looking the toddler in the eye. "Do you really not want to go, or are you scared that something bad will happen again and you'll end up alone?"
    "I'm scared that I'll wander off," he says. "That's what I did. I thought I saw dadd- Peter Pan so I went after him."

    "But it wasn't Peter, was it?"
    Cassie shakes his head. "It wasn't. And I couldn't find my way back to the house."
    I wrap my arms around the toddler. "Cassie, it's not your fault. And don't worry about wondering off again, I'll make sure you never leave my sight."

    I feel him nod against my shoulder. "Okay, mama."

   "Do you want to stay at Granny's?" I ask, pulling back.
   Cassie shakes his head. "No, let's follow the others."

****

    "Do you hear that, mama?"
    "Hear what, Cas?" I ask.
    "That sound," he replies.
    I strain my ears, blocking out the noise of the others chattering and the sound of hooves hitting the ground. I cock my head to the side, trying my best to ignore the sound of armour hitting chain mail. It takes me a few seconds but I finally hear the sound of trumpets playing in the distance.

    "Do you hear it now, mama?"
    I nod. "Yup. It's trumpets."
    "What does that mean?" He asks.
    "It means that we're almost at the castle," King Arthur replies, smiling at Cassie.
    Cassie tightens his grip on my hand.

    "It's alright, Cas." I give his hand a gentle squeeze. "It's just King Arthur's people welcoming us to their kingdom."

    As if on cue a huge castle appears on the horizon. The fanfare gets noticeably louder as we lessen the distance between us and the castle.
   I gape at the magnificent castle. "Wow."
   "Wow is right," David says in reply.

    "His Royal Highness, King Arthur," the herald announces.

   King Arthur nods in greeting. "And now allow me to introduce the loveliest creature in all of Camelot. My Queen-" King Arthur turns around, gesturing at the woman walking down the stairs. "-Guinevere."
   The queen smiles at us as she makes her descent, the train of her silk dress trailing behind her.

    "Your Majesty," Mary Margret bows, the rest of us following in suit, getting up only when the queen begins speaking.
   Queen Guinevere raises her hand for King Arthur to hold. "The pleasure is ours. We have been awaiting your arrival ever since we heard Merlin's prophecy."
   David smiles. "Well, we hope you haven't been waiting too long."

    "Only a decade or so," King Arthur replies, causing all of us to chuckle.
   "Ah, sorry about that," David apologizes.
   "Don't worry about it," King Arthur smiles him. "I'll wager it's been worth the wait. And as a bonus, it's given us more than enough time to prepare a ball in your honour tonight."

    I smile, looking down at the toddler who hasn't let go of my hand since he we got here. "You hear that, Cas? A party."
   "Why are we still here?" Andrew mumbles. "We've already got Cassie."
   "Because of Emma," Jerome replies. "She helped us get our memories back, it's only fair for us to return the favor.

    Andrew grumbles something in return but I can't make out what it is.
   "Your Majesty, when are we going to start our quest to find Merlin?" Hook asks.
   "Find him?" King Arthur asks as if it's the most ridiculous thing he's ever heard. "We don't need to find him. We know exactly where he is."

Storybrooke, The Rental Home.
Present time...

    "Another curse?"
    I nod.
   "Wait, so who cast it this time?" Ray asks.
   "The Savio-" I shake my head. "Sorry. I mean, The Dark One."
   Isaac furrows his eyebrows. "Emma? Why would she do that?"
   "That's what Regina and the others are trying to find out," I say.

    "They think that Emma did something, something she doesn't want us to know about, that's why she erased our memories."
   "Do they know what that might be?" Asa asks.
   "No, but that shouldn't be our main concern," I say. "We should focus on finding out what happened to Hunter. Speaking of him, how's Jerome?"

    "He's in his room," Ray replies. "He hasn't left the room since you dropped him off here."
   "And neither has uncle Will or Lewis," Isaac adds.
   "Where's-"
   "Cassie's fine," Ray assures me. "He's with Jerome.'
    I sigh.
   Good. None of them should be alone right now.

    "Have they any idea where uncle Hunter is?" Asa asks.
   I give him a rueful look. "No. But Regina's not going to give up. The others are still trying to figure out what happened back in Camelot. Hook's at Emma's house looking for answers, but I doubt he'll get any from her since she has her Dark One dagger."

    "Could Regina tell if he was still alive?" Andrew asks, speaking up for the first time since Jerome and I left Granny's Diner.
   I reluctantly shake my head. "She told me that the locator spell on  Hunter's jacket didn't work."
   "And why's that?" Andrew asks.
   "Because the blood from the jacket wasn't Hunter's."

****

    I slowly make my way up the stairs, hesitating when I reach the corridor leading towards the bedrooms. I can make out Will and Lewis's voices as I pass our shared room. I take a deep breath when I reach Hunter and Jerome's room. It's quiet, but I know that Cassie and Jerome are in there. I clench my fist and raise my hand, I rest my hand on the door for a few seconds before knocking.

    "Jerome?" I call out, knocking on the door again. "Jerome, can I come in?"
   Jerome says something to Cassie but it's so soft that I can't make out the words.
   "You can come in, mama," Cassie replies on Jerome's behalf.
    The door opens without a sound as I take in the scene in front of me.

    The first thing I noticed about the room was that it was quite plain. The walls were a dull shade of grey and the only furniture inside were dressers, beds, and their matching bedside tables. Two of each for the brothers. Cassie and Jerome were seated on one of the twin beds, the one that was placed beside the wall. Hunter's bed, the one nearest to the window was untouched and bare.

    I clear my throat. "Cassie, would you mind joining the others the living room please? I'd like to speak to Jerome alone."
    Cassie turns to face the said boy, giving him a look of uncertainty. Jerome nods his head in reply. "It's alright Cassie, I'll be fine."
    Cassie places something in the blonde boy's hands and whispers into his ear before getting off the bed.

    The toddler walks past me, closing the door behind him. Jerome doesn't say anything when I ask him if I could sit beside him, nor does he react when move to sit beside him. I choose not to ask him what Cassie gave him, letting that stay private between the two of them. Instead, I tell him exactly what I told the others downstairs.
    "Regina couldn't trace him," I tell him.
    He remains unresponsive.

    "She said that she couldn't trace where Hunger was because the blood on the jacket wasn't his."
    Still no response.
    "I noticed that you were still shaking long after we left the Granny's Diner," I add.
    Jerome's reply is short and emotionless. "So?"
    "Jerome, let me see your arm."
    He rolls up his sleeve, slowing me his right arm.

    "Not that arm," I say. "Your other arm."
    He hesitates for a second before rolling up his other sleeve, revealing a bloody bandage wrapped around his arm. Jerome's eyes dart around the room, not meeting my gaze.
    He doesn't look at up when I speak again. "That isn't your only wound, is it?"
    He shakes his head.

    "Show me."
    Jerome doesn't say anything as he rolls up the material on his right leg, wincing when he reaches his knee. His right leg looks much, much worse than his arm. The area from his knee to the mid thigh is wrapped in a bandage that's also soaked in thick, crimson blood.

    Jerome slowly unwraps the bandage, showing me his injured leg. I gasp when I see it. His flesh can be seen. It's raw and pink, and most definitely fresh.
   If Jerome looks like this then what does Hunter look like?

    "Jerome-"
    "He's dead. Isn't he?" Jerome asks, breaking the silence.

   "I mean, look at how I ended up. He must be in excruciating pain, if not then he must already be dead."
    I don't rush to comfort him as I don't know how to. There's a higher possibility that he's dead than the possibility that he might be alive. And if he is alive and injured he might not stay that way for long.

    "I didn't even get to apologize to him. I-" He chokes on his spit, clenching his fists. Not in pain, but in anger, directed towards himself. "The last thing I remember saying to him is, "I hate you". I don't even know if we made up. If he-"

    Jerome begins to cry, his body racking with broken sobs. So I did what I would've wanted my friends to do if they didn't know what to say to me when Peter died. I hugged him.

    I placed my arms around his torso, careful to avoid touching his injured leg and arm. We stayed that way for a long time before Jerome spoke again.
    "I'm sorry."
    "What was that?" I ask, pulling back so I can see his face.
    "I'm sorry for being a burden," he says.

    I shake my head. "You're not a burden. You're my friend. We may have hated each other in the past, but afterwards we made peace, sort of."
    "Why?" He asks, his eyes still watery. "I'm not a good person. Why are you still so kind to me even though I was so awful to you and your friends?"
    "Listen to me, Jerome. You're not a bad person," I say, leaving no room for argument. "You're a very good person who bad things happen to."

    "Besides, the world isn't split into good people and Death Eaters. We've all got both light and dark inside of us. What matters is the part we choose to act on. That's who we really are."
    "But I hurt people," Jerome insists as if I hadn't spoken. "I stole, I cheated and I lied to people."

    I place my hand on his shoulder. "Let me ask you something, Jerome. Did you do all of that because you wanted to, or because that was what you had to do to survive?"
    "Because I had to survive," he replies. "But what does that have to do with me being a good or bad person?"

    "It has everything to do with that," I say. "You only stole and cheated people because no one would hire two inexperienced teenagers to work for them. And you only followed Andrew's lead and helped him because you saw that Pan liked him and you thought that if you did what Andrew did Pan wouldn't send you or your brother back to The Enchanted Forest where you had nothing and no-one."

    Jerome is silent for awhile before speaking up again. "He's a good kid, Alice," he says, surprising me.
    "Who is?" I ask.
    "Cassie," he replies, opening his hand to show me what Cassie handed him earlier.
    It was a necklace with two small charms on it. Upon further inspection did I realize that the bigger charm was none other then a miniature version of Peter's pipes.

    And the other charm was a flat, circular piece of metal with the letter "A" ingraved on it.
    "It belongs to Cassie."
    Oh, so that's why it looked so familiar. Come to think of it, I've always seen Cassie wearing it but I've never asked him about the story behind the necklace.
    "Pan gave it to him," Jerome explains as if reading my mind.

    "But I'm pretty sure that Pan's mother was the original owner of the necklace. She was also the person who gave him the pipes he enchanted into luring children who felt lost and unloved."
   "Wow, she must've really loved pipes." Jerome smiles. "Yeah. Pan gave it to him on the day he brought him to Neverland."

    "Cassie said that Pan told him that if he were ever to feel alone and unloved he'd just need to look at the necklace and he'd be reminded that he had a family and that he wasn't alone." Jerome turns to look at me. "He really loved you two, you know?"
   I smile, wiping away the my tears. "I know."
   I miss him.

    "Don't worry, Jerome. We're going to find out what happened to Hunter," I assure him. "We'll find him."
   Jerome offers me a sad smiles. "Thank you, Alice."
   Despite having said all of that, there's still one thing on both of our minds that ruined the heartfelt moment.
   Would Hunter be alive or dead when we do?

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Guess who's back? I'm so much better now thanks to the trip I took with my family and because I went to church this morning. The beautiful scenery at Phuket and the sermon today really inspired me to write and helped with my mental health.

I actually didn't plan on updating today but I wanted to try to write and publish this long time overdue chapter as a New Year's present from me. I'm not sure if I can update as often as I did last time because I'll be in Sec 3 this year and I have more work this time but I'll try my best.

I don't know if you guys noticed but Pan's Game has passed 250Kay reads and is now at 254Kay reads! So thank you all for that and for being so patient with me when I was going though mental breakdowns, I love you all so much and I just want you all to know that I'm so grateful for you guys and all your support. <3

Well, that's all for this A/N, I hope you liked this chapter and have a blessed 2017 ❤

~ Alice xx

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The Redthorn brothers. (I literally just made up that surname for them because I forgot to give them one earlier, but other than that isn't their surname cool and it suits them?)

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Cassie's necklace

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Vote, comment, rate, do whatever you want <3

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